Oscar Rey Tajes @Xenolito
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Life in the Pyrénées Orientales Extreme Snow Sports Discover the region 20% off FrenchLife ski hire in Les Angles! CIC & CCI Améliorez votre Anglais What'sOn & Test your French events around the region December n°202008/9January 2 Can't find a PO Life ? Edito ... Print out your name and address clearly and send to PO Life (address below) with cheque for 30€, for one year's Coucou ! subscription made payable to Anglophone-direct or see p30 Sommaire Oh I know that magazine editors should be serious and sober 4Walktheregion but it IS nearly Christmas and I’ve been saving up my favourite DidYouKnow? joke for a special occasion – so here it is! Lac de la Balmette What did the frog order from the Perpignan fast food restaurant? 6 FrenchLife French flies and a croak!! Yo ho ho! Advice on setting up a business This month we take you up into the mountains of the P-O – you don’t 8 need to be an expert skier or an extreme sports buff to sip hot wine and Festival &traditions taste sweet mountain air on a café trottoir in the winter sunshine. There Caganer, Caga tio, are some great snow shoe walks, superb scenery, excellent family skiing Jour des Rois (guaranteed by snow cannons just in case) and all the ingredients that you 10 What'son? need for a fabulous alpine holiday. Our pick of events Wishing you a Happy, Healthy and Lucky Christmas season here in around the region our beautiful region 12 Our Foodanddrink Bon Nadal i Feliç any Nou English Restaurant & wine (Merry Christmas and Speaking Services reviews directory has now moved Happy New Year in Catalan) to the back pages. 15 Find busines- Outfortheday ses, services, Discover the region Kate & Jane accommoda- 21 tion.... at a TestyourFrench glance! Améliorez votreAnglais Contactez-nous Language exercises [email protected] 25 LivingofftheLand www.anglophone-direct.com Magazine gratuit - Droits réservés - Reproduction interdite - Concepteur Olive industry et rédacteur Kate - Maquette et ...: MS Lang http://ms.lang.free.fr - 04 68 39 75 81 Photo couv.: Saint-Cyprien, ville lumière, de la terre à la mer. © service 26 06 11 25 63 31 communication de St-Cyprien - Impression: Imprimerie Artlife du Mas - Tirage: 5000 ex - Ne pas jeter sur la voie publique - Garalart 06 79 61 96 46 Anglophone-direct accept no responsibility for the com- 30 advertising : [email protected] petency of people and services advertising in PO Life Englishspeaking Anglophone-direct.com SARL, Chemin du Mas Fourcade, 66480 Maureillas services 3 Deux pêcheurs, assis sur un poisson, Walkwiththe Mike Rhodesregion se disputent : L’un dit à l’autre « Ne me parles pas sur ce thon! » Lac de la Balmette Mont Llaret 2376m & Roc D’Aude 2325m This classic tour of the Capcir plateau follows good footpaths, is waymarked in yellow and takes 6 hours, starting and ending in Les Angles centre. In early summer the wild flowers are magnificent and the views over the Pics Peric are stunning. This is a high mountain walk with 900m of height gain so make sure that you can navigate well and take suitable clothing. Poles may help your knees on the final 700m descent!! A snowshoe walk in winter and open fire and is a popular, if informal, refuge for walkers. but at its best and most beautiful in late spring 4 To your right (North) you will see the imposing south ridge and summit of Pic Peric 2810m, a route for another day. From the cabana head towards Lac de Bouillouse on the Tour de Capcir path for 700m until you see a path on your left (west) heading towards Mont Llaret. Take this path, which this year was marked by small, waymarked posts, taking care after 1km where the path to the Lac d’Aude goes off to the right. 4 Our path continues up the hill to the summit plateau at Mont Llaret, 2376m and marked by a cross. To your right is the Lac d’Aude, the source of the river Aude, but beyond there are views to the slopes of Font Romeu, Puigmal 2910m, Access : Map IGN 1:25000 Font Sierra de Cadi and the limestone spikes of the Pedraforca. Romeu 2249ET. Park by the télé- Across to the east lies Roc d’Aude 2325m and the outline cabine Les Pelerins in Les Angles at of machinery that marks the ski station of Les Angles and 1650m 31N 423652E 4713989N the start of our descent. From the top of the ski lifts, follow Walk : the piste, Mermet, initially to the SE until you can see the 4 From the télécabine follow the Mermet piste for 500m télécabine station. In July & August descend by the cabine to a crossroad. Take the path just to the right or the Llaret for free but if it’s not working, follow Mermet piste down ski piste leading to the chateau d’eau. Cross the road and to the Jassettes café and junction with Llaret piste which is follow a forestry track, signed La Balmeta which leads to a followed all the way back to the village. The LH branch of footpath climbing through the Scots Pine forest to estany de the piste above the village leads directly to the bar Eden Roc la Balmeta. ( Since 1983 IGN have been reprinting maps with where that first beer will taste like nectar!! local historical names, hence Balmette & Balmeta). Skirt the In summer make sure that you set off in the cool of the mor- LH side of the lake through the azaleas and up a rocky valley ning and plan to get back to the village by mid afternoon as with rare Pyrenean Lilies. Cabana la Balmeta is just 30 mins any storms on a hot day tend to arrive in the late afternoon. further. The cabana was a shepherd hut but now “le vacheurs” use an encampment about 500m away and look after 400 cows each summer. The cabana has a sleeping shelf, table Mike Rhodes is an International Mountain Leader / Accompagnateur de Montagne, lives all year in Les Angles and specialises in guided walks in the high mountains and Snowshoe 4 trips in winter.. He can be contacted on 0033(0)468043728 - [email protected] - www.pyrenean-trails.com Qu'est-ce qui peut faire le tour Didyouknow? du monde en restant toujours dans son coin? Un timbre! The Surreal story Welcome The shooting is already well underway in both Spain and Mr President New York for the film "Dali and I: The Surreal story" A family-owned business in based on the book "Dali and I" by the Belgian author Stan Girona has been particularly Lauryssens, Dali’s only neighbour in Cadaqués. quick off the mark and has Al Pacino plays the main role of Dali. The script focuses on already produced a Caganer the surrealist painter's latter years - when the art was (see page 9) of future American becoming less important than the money, fame and power, president Barack Obama. and his eccentricities and lifestyle were drawing as much attention to him as his work. Un éléphant, ça trompe ... The film is expected to be released some time in 2009 Elne is the oldest town in Roussillon and it was Le Delacroix from there that Hannibal negotiated a safe passage for his men and 40 elephants across the Panissars still worth a quid or two! Pass at Le Perthus. Don’t forget that you still have until 31st January 2009 to take any 100 francs *Delacroix Exceedingly good bank notes to a Banque de France and stories exchange them for approximately 15 Did you know that Rudyard Kipling euros per note at present exchange wrote a short story during one of his rate. This still leaves the 1980 Debussy, stays in Vernet-les-Bains called « Why (20F) the 1993 St Exupéry, (50F) does it snow in Vernet ?» The amusing the 1997 Cézanne (100F), the 1995 and light-hearted piece pokes fun at Eiffel (200F) and the 1993 Pierre et the English habit of talking about the Marie Curie,(500F) whose date limit for weather. exchanging against euros is 2012 so plenty Visit our site www.anglophone-direct.com of time to dig through old bags and sticky to read the full story. pockets! (*Delacroix was one of the most important of the French Lest We Forget ... Romantic painters in the19th century). Common people We have all heard of Oscar Schindler, hero and saviour of hundreds of Jews from the death camps of WW1 but You may have seen her in Ille-sur-Têt, a magnificent statue how many of you know of the wonderful Elisabeth flying naked through bomb spattered cloud, but did you Eidenbenz, now in her nineties, living a quiet life in the know that Marianne is a national symbol of France, Vienna woods?, Along with her team of nurses, Elizabeth symbolising liberty, French values and republican ideals? set up a maternity ward in an abandoned castle in Elne, Although she seems to have emerged out of the French Château d'En Bardou, and it is estimated that she saved revolution, the origins of the name Marianne are unclear up to 600 babies by rescuing women in the last few though many believe that the name Marie-Anne, one weeks of their pregnancy, fleeing the horrors of Nazism of the most common names of the time, was chosen to during WW2. Visit the Swiss Maternity at Elne, restored represent the common people. Look out for her in town in 1997 – a memorial to a courageous lady.